Aster Mercer
Aster Mercer is the male tribute from District 11 in the 68th Hunger Games. He becomes the Victor of the 68th Hunger Games, earning him a house in the Victor's Village and a safe place for his family and friends to stay and a years-time of grains and oil. Appearance Aster is a somewhat tall, african-american teenage with dark skin, brown dreadlocks and a lean yet muscular build. Aster is described as being handsome by his mentor Donovan Jackson and even his co-tribute Willow Balder. Personality Aster is described as laid-back and a smart alack. He's sarcastic, cool, and sometimes too smart for his own good. Aster is a nice guy at heart, who is caring and very empathetic. But he is also smart-aleck teenager, with a lightning-fast wit and a sarcastic, blunt sense of humor. Making him sassy, cocky, quick-witted and a complete smart-ass. He often jokes around to light the mood, but will also take any opportunity to taunt and mock people, and takes many of the lesser situations he faces lighthearted. Even upon being reaped for the Hunger Games, rather than cry or break down he simply said his goodbyes to his family and kept it moving. He is shown to be kind-hearted and merciful as he spared a 13 year old boy from District 12. However he is also shown to be ruthless when he needs to be, as he kills Clay Morris from District 10 and a career tribute from District 1 without any hesitation and kills Tano in the final battle with his bare hands. Skills Despite his lean physique, Aster's primary skill was his physical abilities. He is capable of lifting over 100 lbs of wheat and cotton over his shoulder rather easily. He could take down and wrestle with men much larger then himself and wrestle with and body slam his father, who was a hulking man weighing over 250 lbs. His strength also went into his punches. In his hand to hand combat training with Donovan, he described Aster's punches as like "being hit in the stomach with a brick". Alex has said that whenever he wasn't working and providing for his family, he was out training combat skills for the chance that he get reaped for the Hunger Games. Aster was also very fast and agile, capable of outrunning the career alliance when they were chasing him and able to swiftly climb up a rock wall to escape from them. His reflexes are also great, capable of dodging an arrow. He is also very skilled in his use of knife-fighting. When not working, he and his father would go out to a location unknown by peace keepers to practice combat. Aster is skilled enough to go up in a knife fight against Tano the male Career from District 2 who was wielding a sword and come out victorious. 68th Hunger Games Aster was the winner of the 68th Hunger Games. Training Aster spent most of his training practicing knife fighting, and hand to hand combat, as well as his passive survival skills. He earned an excellent score of 9, making a tribute that you couldn't count out. Cornucopia bloodbath During the bloodbath, Aster ran straight for the Cornucopia not to kill anyone but to get a supply bag. Aster ducks and dodges various tributes that try to kill him and immediately grabs a bag then runs away. Clay Morris, the male tribute from District 10 tackles him from behind without him noticing but a brief fight on the ground proved that Aster was the better fighter, getting on top of him and punching him as hard as he could in the throat; crushing his larynx and leaving him there to die. As he escapes and hides in some tall leaves he takes off his bag and realizes that there is a knife stuck in the back, revealing that Clay had actually tried to stab him, but the supply bag saved his life. He kept the knife with him. The supply bag contained a sleeping bag, a bottle of iodine along with a dropper (a chemical that purifies water), two water bottles, crackers, dried beef strips, wire and a pair of night glasses. He sees on the display that 7 tributes died in the bloodbath. Over the next few days Aster tries to get further and further away from the Cornucopia, taking refuge in a small cave that he found. He almost died from Dehydration until he found a pond with drinkable water not far from his cave. He saw the thirteen year old boy from District 12 there and decided not to kill him and they both sat there drinking from the same pond and not saying anything until Aster left. After he went back to his cave, he heard the sound of the cannon being fired and the display of the boy from District 12 died and assumed that the Careers were getting close to his cave so he packed up his supplies and ran. Run from the Careers The next morning, Aster finds a spear on the ground, presumably from one of the tributes that died. He wasn't exactly skilled with a spear, but he knew the basics and figured the weapon would be good for distance in a melee fight so he kept it. While resting and eating, he heard the sound of rustling in the bushes and kept his spear up, what came out of the bushes was a giant snake muttation, a 30 foot long boa constrictor that was thick and he knew could swallow him whole, he ran as fast as he could. Despite it's size, the snake was incredibly fast, slithering along the ground at a fast pace and keeping right on Aster's heels. It lunged for him but Aster rolled to the side pointed his spear at it to keep it at bay. It lunged once again, it's mouth wide open and ready to swallow him. Aster used all of his strength and jammed the spear into the snake's throat and it coming out of the snake's head, it died. Unfortunately, this was mainly a plot to get him closer to the Career pack by the game makers. As he traveled he heard the sound of footsteps and turned around to see the pack of careers and they see him. They immediately begin chasing him but Aster is too fast and he climbs up a tree to get away from them and hides so they can't see him. As he gets down from the tree, the girl career from District 2 shoots an arrow at him and he barely manages to dodge it. As she keeps shooting he is able to time and dodge each of them until he gets close enough to run her through with his spear, killing her. He then hears the rest of the pack start to come back and he takes off running.